Animate 3D Shapes with Bones

Here’s a quick look at some new features found in FlexSim 2019.

There are a few big visual improvements in FlexSim 2019. You can now directly animate 3D shapes with bones. Right-click on a person in in 3D view and mouse over “Edit” to find the Animations tool. Either create a new animation or choose an existing one, then click the Bone Animations button in the Keyframes section—it has a green plus sign and a white bone on it. Choose Animate Bones Directly and you’ll see a new “Bones” section in the Animations and Components window.

You’ll notice that the bones in the 3D shape are now visible and can be individually selected and manipulated. When you click a bone, the familiar X, Y, and Z axis cones will appear—right-click and drag with your mouse to rotate the bone along these axes. You can still import animations from Mixamo or elsewhere to use in your FlexSim models, but now you have the option to do a little custom animating within FlexSim.

You can also parent an animation sub-component to a bone, like a clipboard being held in a person’s hand. Once you’ve added and sized a sub-component in the Animations tool, go to the Component’s Properties in the Quick Properties panel and use the Sampler eyedropper next to Parent to Bone to parent it to the bone of your choice. Now when the bone moves or rotates in an animation, so does the sub-component that’s it’s connected to.

Finally, we’ve added the ability to import JT files into FlexSim, so feel free to use these 3D model files in your next simulation model.

Thanks for watching, and we hope you enjoy FlexSim 2019!